第2841期:The best restaurant in London

We're talking about a restaurant. A restaurant that became the top-rated restaurant in London. Except that the restaurant was a fake.我们要谈的是一家餐厅——一家成为伦敦最高评分餐厅的餐厅。只不过，这家餐厅是假的。It didn't exist. Yes, so we ask who did it, why he did it and how. Well, let's start with who, Richard.它根本不存在。那么我们来问：是谁干的？为什么要这么做？又是怎么做到的？我们先从“谁”开始吧，理查德。It was a journalist, OK? By the name of Ubar Butler. And what's interesting was that his original job included writing fake reviews for TripAdvisor restaurants, even though he never went to them, right? And he saw that these fake reviews actually helped the restaurants to become very popular. The reviews were always positive.是一个记者，名叫乌巴·巴特勒。有趣的是，他之前的工作就是帮餐厅在TripAdvisor上写假评论——虽然他从来没去过那些餐厅。而且他发现，这些虚假的好评确实能让餐厅变得很受欢迎。Yes, obviously the restaurants themselves paid for him to write the reviews. Of course, which leads on to why he had his idea. Yes, he wondered whether it was possible for not only to have fake reviews but actually have a fake restaurant.没错，那些餐厅当然是付钱请他写好评的。而这也引发了他的灵感：他在想，既然有假的评论，那能不能干脆弄一家假的餐厅？Would it be possible to become the best restaurant in London? Yeah, now this became a challenge for him, didn't it, Richard? And we're talking about April 2017. So how did he go about it, Richard?能不能让这家假餐厅成为伦敦最好的餐厅？对，这对他来说成了一个挑战。时间是在2017年4月。那他是怎么做的呢，理查德？Well, the first thing is he decided to use his real shed in the garden. That was the restaurant.首先，他决定用自己花园里的小棚子当作餐厅。Yeah, and he called it The Shed. And for £10 he was actually able to get it verified as a real place. Because it wasn't real, he didn't want to give his real address, so he made it appointment-only.对，他把餐厅命名为“The Shed（棚屋）”。花了10英镑，他居然真的能让TripAdvisor验证通过。因为餐厅并不存在，他不想公开真实地址，于是设置为“仅限预约”。And then, so he did that, then he designed a website and he created a concept. What was that? He named all his dishes after moods. So he had a happy, love, comfort as his dishes.接着他做了网站，并设计了一个概念。他把所有菜品都以情绪命名，比如“快乐”“爱情”“安慰”等。So comfort for me would be something like shepherd's pie. Yes, and he also took some photos of the dishes. Yeah, those arty, soft, focused, close-up photos of food that is very popular nowadays.比如“安慰”这道菜，对我来说可能就像牧羊人派一样。是的，他还拍了一些菜的照片——那种现在很流行的艺术感、柔焦、特写的美食照。But they were all fake as well. Yeah, he didn't even use real ingredients, right? He used shaving cream instead of cream. Shaving cream, yes, and paint.但那些照片也全是假的。他根本没用真正的食材，比如用剃须膏代替奶油。没错，还有颜料。He painted his things to look attractive. Yeah, so he had a name, had a logo, and lots of great photos. So then he submits his restaurant to TripAdvisor and... Well, it's approved and then it's put on their site for everyone to see.他用颜料把东西涂得看起来很诱人。于是，他有了名字、有了标志，还有很多漂亮的照片。接着，他把餐厅提交到TripAdvisor——结果真的通过审核，上了网站。He started out ranked at number 18,149, but by the end of August he was at number 156. And by the winter he's number 30. How did he do that, Richard?起初他的排名是第18,149名，但到了八月底，已经上升到第156名。到了冬天，更是进入前三十。理查德，他是怎么做到的？Well, obviously, he has a history of writing fake reviews. Yes. He had lots of contacts. He got all his friends to write really great reviews for his non-existent restaurant and that soon got him shooting up the charts.很明显，他有写假评论的经验。而且人脉广，他请朋友们帮忙为这家不存在的餐厅写极好的评论。没多久，排名就蹭蹭往上涨。It was all about the reviews. All the reviews were fantastic and it made all the difference. And of course he couldn't have any bad reviews because no real people went to the restaurant at all.一切都靠评论。所有的评论都极其出色，这就是关键。而且根本不会出现差评，因为没有真正的顾客去过。Exactly. And then on the 1st of November, the same year, just six months after listing The Shed online, he gets an email from TripAdvisor. He's worried, isn't he?没错。然后在同年11月1日，也就是上架六个月后，他收到了TripAdvisor的邮件。他当时很紧张，对吧？Yes, he thinks they've rumbled him. Yeah. But an actual fact is to tell him that he's London's top-rated restaurant.对，他以为自己被揭穿了。其实不是。那封邮件是告诉他，他的餐厅成了伦敦排名第一的餐厅。A restaurant that doesn't exist, he's told, is currently the highest ranked in one of the world's biggest cities on perhaps the internet's most trusted review site.一间根本不存在的餐厅，成了世界上最大城市之一、也许是最受信任的评论网站上的第一名。Number one, Richard. I mean, that is just incredible.第一名啊，理查德。这真是太不可思议了。Now, he stayed there for two weeks, but of course now that the page has been deleted, everybody realises it was a fake.后来它保持第一名两周，但如今页面已被删除，大家才意识到那是个骗局。But he said it was a fake, didn't he? Yeah, he... It wasn't actually found out by anybody. No, no, no. He wanted to show that this was possible, right?不过是他自己公开承认的。并不是被揭穿的。他只是想证明，这一切是可以做到的。And I suppose it's sad really because it just shows how easily fooled people are.说起来也挺讽刺的，这说明人们是多么容易被欺骗。How fake everything is. But an actual fact, in his own words, he's much more positive. He says, if he can transform his garden into London's best restaurant, then literally anything is possible in the business world.世界多么虚假。但用他自己的话说，他倒是更乐观——如果他能把自家花园变成伦敦最好的餐厅，那在商业世界里，一切皆有可能。